The trio went to Helios’s house. As he had enough space and all the necessary facilities, all three of them would be living there while James trains for the Soul Grinder.

They didn't have much time to waste, but if they went to the Soul Grinder now, James would be ripped to shreds the moment he stepped inside.

So a few training sessions were crucial. Lunaris and Helios made it perfectly clear that he wasn't fighting so much as a fly till he received their approval. They were very worried about the increased damage he'd receive due to the curse, so they were extra careful, worried that the impatient fool would get himself killed.

“So, what exactly is the Soul Grinder anyway?” James asked, still not sure whether he should be excited at the prospect of leveling up quickly, or terrified of the dangers.

Helios, as courageous and tough as he was, couldn’t help but cringe every time he thought of the Soul Grinder. “It’s a prison of sorts, an orb that houses a pocket dimension. Built long ago by the mages of Hedonia, that's where over the years they imprisoned thousands of the most dangerous monsters they could subdue. Initially, the purpose was for it to be used as a training device for the bravest of mages. But when those who went inside kept dying, they abandoned the idea and designated it as a forbidden object. Now only the biggest of fools dare to go inside, if they even obtain permission.”

“It’s only foolish if we fail.” James thumped his chest brazenly, trying to manufacture a courageous personality by simply not thinking too hard about the dangers. "So, anyway, it's just a bunch of rooms with monsters?"

"...yeah. But I don't know if I'd describe it like that. Every one of those monsters can kill you before you could even blink." Helios answered.

"So it's not really any different from what we've faced up until now. It's just more of the same, but the monsters are even stronger. I can deal with that." James wasn't overestimating himself, but the constant battles against stronger monsters did make him a bit too comfortable with the whole concept.

“That kind of attitude will get you killed." Lunaris shook her head. She'd try her hardest to try to keep him from getting himself killed. She decided she wouldn’t allow his recklessness to go unchecked anymore, the stakes were higher than ever. And they would only get higher in the future. So James needed to have some prudence instilled into him. "How about you tell us about the defensive skills you had in mind before you make such grandiose declarations?”

As foolish as James seemed sometimes, his brilliance shined through just as often. He did have a plan, and the mere thought of it made him smirk involuntarily.

“I’ll have three layers of defense. One won't do it, I'll have three different skills that will keep me safe. I know that these ideas are purely fictional for now, I'm not entirely sure if they’re even possible, but you guys know a lot more about this world so you’ll tell me what’s possible or not.”

Helios and Lunaris both nodded slowly, both excited and skeptical about his plans.

“First of, I want to develop a way to sense the attacks before they’re even coming. Something like seeing into the future for one second, or just some sort of premonition where you feel the attack coming so you can have more time to dodge.”

Hearing that, Helios and Lunaris had mixed feelings. Their faces betrayed their confusion and slight disappointment.

“What? Is such a thing completely impossible?”

“No, I wouldn’t say it’s impossible.” Helios had to think hard about how to answer. It felt like talking to a child, the innocence of these pie in the sky dreams was almost amusing. “There are all kinds of crazy skills out there in the world. It’s just not something you develop overnight. Sounds like something you get by stumbling upon some great mage’s inheritance, or by obsessively training for years just for this one thing. But we don't have that kind of time.”

“Yeah, I know it sounds far-fetched, but think about it! How hard can it be? There’s all kinds of schools of magic. And off the top of my head there’s like three of them that could have this kind of skill.”

“All right, all right, what did you have in mind?” Lunaris was skeptical, but she was willing to entertain the idea, being more used to the scholarly pursuits than Helios.

“Imagine it: mind magic, time magic, divination. Any of these could be used for this purpose.”

“That’s true, but these are complicated fields of study. People could spend years learning the fundamentals of just one of these fields.” Lunaris replied.

James then smirked. “Yes, that’s true. But I have an advantage. I’m lazy and don’t care for the proper way of doing things!”

Lunaris and Helios didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

“What do you mean? That makes no sense!” Lunaris protested. Helios chose to just laugh.

“Actually, it does. People spend way too much time learning things inefficiently. They could spend years studying, when everything they actually end up remembering after those years of study could have been learned with just a few days of actually going out there and doing things.” James replied.

“But there’s a reason they teach those things! Their value might not be apparent to you, but it’s not like the teachers are wasting your time, you need to know certain things even if the point of learning them isn’t immediately obvious.” Lunaris was also starting to feel like she was talking to a child.

“I used to be one of the laziest people in existence. I understand that side of human psychology very well. Even while people are working hard, their minds inevitably want to take the path of least resistance. So they go along and learn whatever is presented to them, without questioning the efficiency of what they’re taught.” James said in an unusually serious tone. “I’m a firm believer that a good summary is 90% as good as the full thing.”

Neither Helios nor Lunaris could formulate a response. How do you answer to something so stupid?

But James was incredibly confident in what he was saying, despite the clear idiocy of his words. Seeing him brimming with confidence, they began doubting their own sanity, maybe actually believing him. Although the years of being raised in a highly intellectual environment also made them highly skeptical and wary of his foolhardy approach.

“I’ll prove it to you. I’ll learn such a skill in just a few days! I’ll do it the quick and dirty way, by skimming through the material at light speed, skipping all the irrelevant parts, and hyperfocusing just on the things I need.” James declared.

Neither of them answered, it was clear that there was no arguing with this guy. Might as well see if he has a point.

“Ok, what are the other two skills you had in mind?” Helios asked.

“Glad you asked! While the first skill would make me aware of what I need to dodge, I need a second skill that can actually help my body dodge. I’m clearly not the physically gifted type. My reactions are slow, my body moves sluggishly. Quite frankly it's a miracle I've managed to dodge anything at all. So I was thinking, how can I dodge faster if my body is slow and weak? And the answer was fairly simple. I play to my strengths! I’ll just use mana to automatically dodge!”

“Or you could just … train your body?” Helios said disapprovingly.

“Hey, I know myself. When it comes to the physical, I’m just not going to be good at it, ever. I'm clumsy and feeble and I hate moving. But if I could just have an … exoskeleton of sorts, an invisible layer of mana that would take the impulses from my brain and autonomously make my body dodge, then not only would dodging be much easier, but it would allow me to focus a lot more on attacking. Or on using the third skill.”

Helios and Lunaris thought they were done being stunned, but every revelation was more and more ridiculous. They were pretty sure no such spell exists, because no one in their right mind would have ever created something like this. Who would even need it? Just train your god damn legs and dodge.

“These ideas are nuts. They're original, but that's because I'm not even sure if they're useful. So what’s the third skill?” Lunaris asked, a bit impressed by his ingenuity, but quite frustrated by the weirdness of the ideas as well.

“I can’t just assume I’ll always be able to dodge in time. If there are multiple hits converging on my location, the exoskeleton might not be able to push me in any direction without an attack still coming at me. So, because I am cursed and I probably shouldn't take any damage at all, I realized that what I need is a small teleportation skill! I just need to teleport a few feet away, to escape the immediate danger. Maybe I can even trigger the teleportation automatically, just like the exoskeleton triggers the dodging. That’s probably not unrealistic, right?”

“Aye, there’s plenty of ways to teleport around. But the mana cost is pretty high.” Helios answered.

“That’s all right, I did level up solely by training my magic. So while that did have the obvious disadvantage of leaving my body and other stats weak, my mana, mana regeneration and spell power are quite strong by now.”

“I still think training your body would’ve done you a lot of good.” Helios stated, but then he realized something. “Wait a second, all those skills are laziness incarnate! You’re just planning on automating your defenses so you don’t have to personally do anything.”

“Hey, leveling up is already all about effort. So removing an unnecessary effort is just logical. Work smart, not hard.” James then grinned proudly.

It took Helios and Lunaris quite a while until they digested everything they had heard. But they knew their friend, and they trusted him. If he thought these things would work, then they'd work.

Finally, they realized why James’s innate skill was [Jack of all trades, master of none]. It really did suit his weird way of thinking. Few other people would be bold enough to jump into fields that require years of studying, only to disregard most of the teachings and just dirtily focus on whatever they needed at the moment. Like a hog sniffing for truffles in the forest, that's how James would defile the knowledge gathered by their ancestors, only to crudely create his own weird spells.

James was determined to prove he was right though. And the two were just as eager to see if this bizarre approach to magic would really work.

They made a quick trip to the library and grabbed a dozen books, anything that seemed remotely pertinent to the task at hand.

As soon as they arrived back at Helios’s house, James was excited to show them the might of a lazy recluse that wasted years of his life on the internet. With these dusty tomes and the Aetherweb at hand, he was ready to create an automated defense system. It took a truly lazy mind to even think of such things, but results were all that mattered.